More UK pensioners will get winter fuel payments this year, Reeves says

LONDON (Reuters) -British finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday more pensioners will receive winter fuel payments starting this winter, following the government's U-turn on the cuts in the payments to the elderly.

Cuts to the payments, which subsidise winter heating bills for millions of older people and are worth 200-300 pounds ($270-405), were announced shortly after Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government took office in July 2024.

They were cited as one factor in the party losing ground to Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform UK party in recent local elections. Reform also leads in opinion polls nationally.

Starmer signaled last month the government would reverse the cuts but there had been uncertainty around when more pensioners would begin receiving the payments again.

"People should be in no doubt that ... more people will get winter fuel payment this winter," Reeves told a press conference in northwest England on Wednesday.

"We have now put our public finances on a firmer footing. The economy is in a better shape. But we have also listened to the concerns that people had," she added.

Reeves had said last year the cuts were needed to repair public finances and to ensure the payments would not be made to wealthier people who do not need the help.

The government's U-turn means more pensioners will become eligible to receive the payments, but pensions minister Torsten Bell suggested wealthier pensioners would still not be eligible.

"Directly on (the) question of, 'is there any prospect of a universal winter fuel payment?' the answer is no," Bell told a committee of lawmakers on Wednesday, adding it wasn't a good idea to give millionaires the payments.

"But we will be looking at making more pensioners eligible," Bell said.

($1 = 0.7390 pounds)

(Reporting by Muvija M, Alistair Smout and David Milliken, Writing by Sachin Ravikumar, Editing by Catarina Demony)